Monday, February 8, 2010

I am loco in my coco

I am so far behind on blogging...this will be a big post. I have wanted to blog every night since the last post, but time has conspired against me, that and my own fatigue. Pictures tell a story, so we will just blog via those with some captions (some captions longer than others) hope that is ok.There are so many pictures I could share of the dental brigades. I have issues about pulling teeth that could be fixed, but that is a long term problem, and in those brigades we offer a short term/long term solution. Greater education is clearly what the situation requires, and something that our clinic and Churches need to address not only in terms of dental health.

Seeing more bloody gums and absolutely the worst teeth that you have ever seen, probably not necessary, so instead I will just tell you we saw that, and show you some other pictures, like this one, where we see our young 10 year old group participant lending a hand to a patient...sometimes you just need a hand to squeeze. This was one of the patients that was around 20 and already had partial dentures...no accidents or anything, just extremely poor dental health.

Of course I was my normal supportive self, talking to Wendy here about her fears of getting her teeth pulled. She did decide she preferred the method being offered against some of the alternative means I proffered as suggestions. Go figure. She was squeamish to seeing the patient in front of her, and even to having her picture taken. I really like this picture.

Will here had never had Coke in a bag before. It struck me that there might be others out there that are not familiar with this local delicacy. This is one of those mother/necessity/invention things. If you put the beverage in the bag, you avoid the whole messy issues with regard to cash deposit on the bottles. I am told that in terms of taste, first is from the bottle, second from the bag, third aluminum can. Where plastic bottles fit in that scheme...well, I leave that to you. I enjoy water from a bag, but can not opine on the palate qualities of carbonated beverages.

Another rare treat...getting your own coconut, and then having Oscar show how to open it, drink the milk and then eat the meat. We did not opt for the monkey method of beating the coconut but instead used a knife...but it really is amazing how they are packaged and how one can open them quickly (I could not) with or without a knife if you know what you are doing.

What a picture...this is David, who was hanging out as the day progressed, and was full of energy. We are all different, David was very different, at one point as we played he was trying to bite me...and almost succeeded a couple times. It was obvious he was desperate for attention. Taking a few minutes to give love and a necklace...could make a difference for a lifetime.

Oscar wears many hats. I mean, many hats. Unfortunately not one of those is a ground, as when he tried to fix the garage doors this week. Some of the kids that come to play soccer (and unfortunately throw rocks on the roof, at the windows, break into the containers, and remind me of quite a few curse words that I would just as soon try to forget) apparently decided it would be fun to pull so hard on the wires running from the building to the doors. Unfortunately for Oscar, although he turned off the breaker...someone needed electricity for the rest of the circuit, and so instead of checking the box again, he got a little surprise. Although he was not stuttering or laying on the ground when I came back to check on him, and the gates worked again after that. As always, all work projects here are OSHA certified.

I happened by the clinic and it was almost time for lunch. Reina was done with patients for the morning. But Valerie and Nerys found this man who was not all there in one way or another (mentally...he was not drunk) but was sick. Reina was a little scared about seeing a shirtless slightly off guy by herself, but wanted to do it, so I stood watch to ease her nerves while she tried to communicate with him and find out how we could help. Watching several of our staff reach out to this man that otherwise people cross the street to avoid just smacked me upside the head of how we are different, and praise God for that!

Three Valeries? Can you believe it? Quite a reunion I do not anticipate repeating anytime soon. Bonus...Kevin being extra cute peeking out of the curtain in the background.

So it is February, but the burning has started already. Ugh. It is dry, drier here in Teguc than I can remember, especially at the front of everyone's minds with water rationing and billboards all over town by a very conscious hardware store that is reminding us that every drop counts. Cecilia even came home from school today telling us how we can wash our hands with very little water, and that we should not be wasteful...which is very encouraging to see.

I am so busy, my to-do list is so long...but that means little here sometimes. Like today. I got a call about the accident Oscar had two years ago or more...to meet our lawyer to try to resolve the case, which is a very long story. This is one picture of us waiting (I was gone from 1:20 to about 5:30 or so) with at this point only three lawyers. My favorite part was the bank's lawyer we met at one point, discussing very fine points of our Castilian language and how it related to the court documents, and then in the end when it was decided that the money we had to finalize things had to go to the Honduran Central Bank...which means weeks or months more of waiting and probably another couple days like this of meetings. That bank lawyer did say one thing I readily agreed with..."here you will see how quickly we take care of things in the private sector, compared to how long the rest of this will take with the government involved." I have a feeling you could say that in just about any country.

1 comment:

I gave Nery an article about milk: 12 reasons kids need it. It starts with a story about a child getting a broken arm treated in a clinic. I gave it to her to encourage her to always serve milk at the clinic but she liked it so much she read it to the kids. Bravo. Less teeth to pull maybe at our little outpost. And less arms to mend.